LFX mentorship (2025/term1): EPIC: Enhancing KubeStellar UI for Expanded Functionality and User Experience

[clubanderson]

Description: KubeStellar is a flexible solution for challenges associated with multi-cluster configuration management for edge, multi-cloud, and hybrid cloud. KubeStellar's UI is a tool for interacting with KubeStellar components, managing its inventory and transport space (ITS), and workload description space (WDS). Currently, the UI is in its early stages, providing only basic features like reading kubeconfig info and displaying ITS and WDS. The goal of this project is to significantly enhance the functionality and usability of the KubeStellar UI by implementing additional core features, improving its user interface, and ensuring a seamless experience for Kubernetes cluster operators.

Objectives

• Implement BindingPolicies CRUD:
  • Develop intuitive interfaces for creating, reading, updating, and deleting binding policies.
    • LFX mentorship (2025/term1): Implement an Binding Policy backend to support UI frontend operations #53
  • Ensure policies are validated against Kubernetes standards and KubeStellar’s architecture.
  • Allow users to view and manage binding policies tied to specific workloads or clusters.
    • LFX mentorship (2025/term1): Implement an Binding Policy frontend supported by Binding Policy backend endpoints #54
• Add Workload Deployment to WDS:
  • Build functionality for deploying workloads to one or more WDS.
    • LFX mentorship (2025/term1): Implement an WDS backend to support UI frontend operations #52
  • Provide real-time feedback on deployment status and logs.
  • Add visualization for workload placement across multiple WDS, ensuring clarity of resource distribution.
    • LFX mentorship (2025/term1): Implement an WDS frontend supported by WDS backend endpoints #51
• Cluster Onboarding to ITS:
  • Create an onboarding wizard to guide users through adding new clusters to the ITS.
    • LFX mentorship (2025/term1): Implement an ITS backend to support UI frontend operations #49
  • Validate clusters' compatibility and connection during the onboarding process.
    • LFX mentorship (2025/term1): Implement an ITS frontend supported by ITS backend endpoints #50
  • Automatically generate and display kubeconfig details for onboarded clusters.
• Enhance UI Usability and Performance:
  • Upgrade the UI with modern design principles for a consistent and intuitive user experience.
  • Leverage React and Vite to optimize load times and component rendering.
  • Introduce real-time updates for ITS and WDS data using WebSocket or API polling.
• Backend Integration with Go:
  • Extend the Go backend to support new API endpoints for the proposed features.
  • Ensure secure and efficient communication between the UI and Kubernetes API.
  • Validate backend performance under high-scale usage.

Expected Outcomes

• New Features:
  • BindingPolicies CRUD operations accessible via the UI.
  • Workload deployment support to one or more WDS.
  • Seamless onboarding process for adding clusters to the ITS.
• Improved Usability:
  • A polished UI with a modern look and feel, supporting intuitive navigation.
  • Real-time insights into cluster operations and workload deployments.
• Robust Performance:
  • Scalable backend integration with Go for handling large cluster environments.
  • Optimized frontend with Node.js, React, and Vite for faster interaction.

Bonus Features

• Visualization Improvements:
  • Visual dashboard for workload deployments and cluster health monitoring.
  • Integration of charts to show resource utilization trends across ITS and WDS.
• User Customizations:
  • Add support for user-defined themes (dark/light mode).
  • Exportable configurations for sharing binding policies or deployment setups.
  • By implementing these enhancements, KubeStellar UI will evolve into a comprehensive tool for cluster management, empowering users to efficiently deploy and manage resources while offering an intuitive and modern interface.

**Recommended Skills

• Frontend Development: Node.js, React, Vite, and REST API integration.
• Backend Development: Go and Kubernetes API communication.
  -Cluster Management: Familiarity with Kubernetes clusters and associated workflows.
• UI/UX Design: Experience in designing interfaces for system operators.

Mentor(s):

• Andy Anderson (@clubanderson, [email protected])
• Braulio Dumba (dumb0002, [email protected])

[clubanderson]

closed - will now use 6 projects instead of 1